Faronics, a global leader in simplifying, securing and managing
multi-user computer environments, today announced the results of its State
of Cyber Security Readiness survey,which examines the cyber
threat and data breach experiences of small and medium-sized businesses
(SMBs). The research was completed by The Ponemon Institute.

When asked about a range of threats most likely to affect their
organization’s ability to achieve its business objectives, more than
three quarters of respondents in both the U.S. and U.K., 76 percent and
77 percent, respectively, consider check or credit card fraud either
“likely” or “very likely.” Respondents included executives from many
levels of these organizations, ranging from the owner/partner to outside
consultants, but were heavily weighted toward the director, manager,
supervisor and technician levels.

The top three threats to their organizations listed by U.S. respondents
included “proliferation of unstructured data,” (69 percent), “unsecure
third parties including cloud providers," (65 percent) and “not knowing
where all sensitive data is located," (62 percent). U.K. respondents had
a slightly different set of concerns: 62 percent believe “proliferation
of end-user devices” is a key issue, as well as “lack of security
protection across all devices,” (cited by 56 percent) and “unsecure
third parties including cloud providers,” (53 percent).

“Although organizations have become more aware of potential threats,
they do not seem to accurately perceive the repercussions associated
with data breaches,” said Dmitry Shesterin, vice president of product
management at Faronics. “Findings indicate that organizations do not
understand the full costs and damages they will suffer as a result of a
data breach. These organizations need to become more proactive about
their security programs in order to minimize the damage they will
inevitably experience from one, if not more, data breach.”

A common belief labels IT departments and managements as too complacent
with security and data protection, leaving their organizations
vulnerable to cyber threats. However, Faronics’ survey found otherwise.
Just 9 percent among U.S. respondents and 4 percent in the U.K. admit
“security is not taken seriously because our organization is not
perceived as being vulnerable to attacks.” Among other key survey
findings:

64 percent of U.S. respondents and 75 percent of U.K. respondents
cited “insufficient people resources” as a primary barrier to
achieving effective security

50 percent of U.S. respondents noted “lack of central accountability”
and 41 percent listed “lack of monitoring and enforcement of end users”

When queried about the impact of data breaches on their organizations,
more than half of U.S. and U.K. respondents cited the loss of time and
productivity most frequently. Both U.S. and U.K. respondents also listed
damage to their organization’s brand second most frequently. According
to the findings among companies that experienced a data breach:

42 percent of U.S. respondents and 38 percent of U.K. respondents
stated they “lost customers and business partners”

41 percent and 34 percent of U.S. and U.K. respondents, respectively
experienced an increase in the “cost of new customer acquisition"

35 percent of U.S. respondents and 31 percent of U.K. respondents
“suffered a loss of reputation”

“This is the first study to investigate what smaller companies in North
America are doing to prevent and detect cyber attacks,” said Dr. Larry
Ponemon, chairman and founder of Ponemon Institute. “Results indicate
that companies tend to seriously underestimate the potential damage to
brand and reputation, revealing a great data breach perception gap.
Misconceptions about the consequences associated with a data breach are
preventing organizations from implementing the necessary financial
tools, in house-expertise and technologies to achieve cyber readiness.”

Survey findings uncover that IT managers made security and data
protection investment decisions based on ease of deployment and ongoing
operations as well as low purchase costs. The majority of respondents,
73 percent in the U.S. and 78 percent in the U.K., seek products and
solutions that enable easy deployment. U.K. teams further indicated the
importance of minimal maintenance effort with 62 percent of respondents
listing the “ease of ongoing operations” as a key factor influencing
security investments, followed by 58 percent seeking “low purchase cost”
and 52 percent seeking low total cost ownership (TCO). U.S. teams
indicated a greater concern with costs, as 65 percent of respondents
listed “low purchase cost” as a primary influencer over the 60 percent
who listed “ease of ongoing operations” and half who listed “low TCO.”

Among the data protection solutions respondents most frequently employ
today; 65 percent and 75 percent, respectively of U.S. and U.K.
respondents employ firewalls and other perimeter security technologies.
Thirty-six percent of U.S. and 53 percent of U.K. respondents turn to
blacklisting and/or whitelisting tools to identify content with
vulnerabilities. A significant plurality of IT teams relies on enforcing
strict data policies, cited by one-third of U.S. and 45 percent of U.K.
respondents.

Ponemon Institute conducts independent research on privacy, data
protection and information security policy. The company’s goal is to
enable organizations in both the private and public sectors to have a
clearer understanding of the trends in practices, perceptions and
potential threats that will affect the collection, management and
safeguarding of personal and confidential information about individuals
and organizations. Ponemon Institute research informs organizations on
how to improve upon their data protection initiatives and enhance their
brand and reputation as a trusted enterprise.

About Faronics

With a well-established record of helping organizations manage,
simplify, and secure their IT infrastructure, Faronics makes it possible
to do more with less by maximizing the value of existing technology.
Their suite of products ensures 100% workstation availability, and frees
up IT teams from tedious technical support and software issues.
Incorporated in 1996, Faronics has offices in the USA, Canada and the
UK, as well as a global network of channel partners. Faronics solutions
are deployed in over 150 countries, and are helping more than 30,000
organizations worldwide.

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